JPH05164361A - Structure of chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve control temperature accuracy of a semiconductor printing exposure unit to be installed in a chamber, to reduce an installing area of a clean room and to decrease in size a manufacturing facility in a structure of the chamber to be installed in the room. CONSTITUTION:A structure of a chamber contains a semiconductor manufacturing unit and an air circulating unit for supplying temperature-controlled air to the unit, and comprises a chamber section 1 for containing the unit and a machine room section 2 for containing the circulating unit separately provided. The section 1 and the section 2 are coupled through an air supply duct 3 and a circulation duct 5, and the duct 3 is contained in the duct 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a chamber used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A semiconductor printing exposure apparatus is installed and used in a clean room. This is to ensure the air cleanliness in order to minimize the adhesion of dust to the wafer surface and to adjust the temperature to ensure the optical performance of the semiconductor printing exposure apparatus. In order to enhance these effects, the semiconductor printing exposure apparatus is housed in the chamber. As a conventional example of the chamber, there is Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-4212.
There is one disclosed in No. 1.

[0003]

However, in the above conventional example, since the cooling air supply duct is laid outside the clean room, it is affected when the outside air temperature fluctuates. As a means for solving this, a heating part and a controller part are provided in the chamber. However, when the outside air temperature outside the clean room fluctuates rapidly, the cooling air temperature also fluctuates, and the stability of the control temperature deteriorates. Therefore, it has been difficult to achieve a control temperature accuracy of ± 0.05 ° C or ± 0.1 ° C.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art. In a chamber structure installed in a clean room, the control temperature accuracy of a semiconductor printing exposure apparatus installed in the chamber is improved and the control temperature accuracy is improved. The object is to reduce the installation area of the clean room and downsize the manufacturing equipment.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a chamber for accommodating a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and an air circulating apparatus for supplying temperature-controlled air to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is provided. In the structure, a chamber portion for accommodating the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and a machine room portion for accommodating the air circulation device are separately provided, and the chamber portion and the machine room portion are provided with an air supply duct and a return air duct. It is characterized in that it is connected and the air supply duct is housed in the return air duct.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the air circulating device comprises a blower, an air heater, an air cooler, and a temperature control device.

[0007]

The present invention separates the chamber and the machine room, installs the machine room outside the clean room, and uses the exhaust air duct (return air duct) and the supply air duct (air supply duct) for the chamber and the machine room. When connected, the duct for the supply air is subjected to heat retention treatment to reduce the influence on the fluctuation of the outside air temperature outside the clean room. This improves the temperature controllability of the chamber and enables the chamber and the machine room to be installed separately.

[0008] As the heat insulation treatment technique, there is a method in which a heat insulation material such as glass fiber is attached to the duct or a heater is attached.

In the former case, sufficient heat retention cannot be expected for the required temperature adjustment accuracy of ± 0.05 ° C. In addition, the latter becomes a problem in terms of cost.

For this reason, in the present invention, the supply air duct is housed in the exhaust air duct, and an air layer is provided between the ducts so that the influence of the outside air temperature does not pose a practical problem.

Further, since the temperature-controlled air flows in the exhaust air duct, the above effect can be enhanced.

[0012]

EXAMPLE FIG. 1 shows an example of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a chamber, 2 is a cooling air supply device, 3 is a supply air duct, 4 is a semiconductor printing exposure device, 5 is an exhaust air duct for sending the air in the chamber to the cooling air supply device 2, 6 is an exhaust fan for exhausting the air in the chamber, 7 is a cooler, 8 is a blower for sending the cooled air into the chamber, 9 is a heater for heating the cooled air to a set temperature, 10 Is a filter for removing dust contained in the supply air, 12 is a sensor, 11 is a sensor 1
2 is a controller that controls the output of the heater 9 based on the temperature detected by 2.

In this structure, the air in the chamber 1 and the semiconductor printing exposure apparatus 4 passes through the exhaust air duct 5 and is guided to the cooling air supply apparatus 2 by the exhaust fan 6 and cooled by the cooler 7.

The cooled air is sent to the chamber 1 by the blower 8 through the supply air duct 3. The supply air duct 3 branches into three directions inside the chamber 1. The heater 9, the filter 10, the controller 11 for each branched system,
A sensor 12 is provided. The cooling air is heated by the heater 9, the dust is removed by the filter 10, and the cooling air is supplied to the periphery of the semiconductor printing exposure apparatus 4 and for partial internal air conditioning. At this time, a sensor 12 is provided at the outlet of each system to detect the air temperature after heating. Based on the detected temperature and the set temperature, the controller 11 controls the output of the heater 9 to control the temperature of each system.

In the above operation, since the supply air duct 3 is provided in the exhaust air duct 5, an air layer is formed by the exhaust air with the outside air outside the clean room. With this air layer, it is possible to prevent the temperature of the cooling air from being affected by the fluctuation of the temperature of the outside air. In order to realize a high required temperature control accuracy of ± 0.1 ° C. or ± 0.05 ° C., it is important to prevent the influence of the fluctuation of the outside air temperature.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the chamber machine room is provided separately from the chamber, the size of the chamber can be reduced. Therefore, a larger number of step bars can be installed in the same clean room as compared with the conventional case. Can be installed. This improves productivity.

When the same number of steppers as in the conventional case is installed, the clean room can be downsized.
Therefore, the running cost of the clean room is reduced.

Further, since the machine room, which is the heat generating part of the chamber, is installed outside the clean room, the temperature of the clean room can be controlled easily, the running cost is lowered and the maintainability is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a semiconductor exposure apparatus including a chamber according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Chamber, 2: Cooling air supply device, 3: Supply air duct (air supply duct), 4: Semiconductor printing exposure device, 5:
Exhaust air duct (return air duct), 6: exhaust fan,
7: cooler, 8: blower, 9: heater, 10: filter, 11: controller, 12: sensor.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A chamber structure for accommodating a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and an air circulating apparatus for supplying temperature-controlled air to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, wherein a chamber portion for accommodating the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and the air are provided. A machine room part for accommodating a circulation device is provided separately, the chamber part and the machine room part are connected to each other via an air supply duct and a return air duct, and the air supply duct is housed in the return air duct. A chamber structure characterized by the above. 2. The chamber structure according to claim 1, wherein the air circulation device includes a blower, an air heater, an air cooler, and a temperature control device.